penny lane wrote:i'm proud of Kunitz~ all over game and at 33 , his scoring success. Pascal too. And both undrafted.

What's impressed me as much as their productivity is the consistent effort and intensity of Sid and both linemates. They're leading by example and it looks like it's rubbing off on their new youngsters Bennett and Sutter.

Bennett impresses me with his ability to think the game. Very smart for a young player and seemingly doesn't get caught out of position. Liked his comments between periods about being too soft on the puck then going out backing it up with his play

He's really good in his own end too, made a number of tough smart dump outs or tough passes. Both him and Despres played real solid games.

mikey287 wrote:Weird, the best goalies in the league are the ones on defensive teams...

Tonight, we played a pretty good defensive game* and our goalie played well...

Strange how that works sometimes

* - we do have an issue with how we handle situations where 4+ men are active and 3 men are below the hash marks...there's no apparent plan on who everyone should take in those situations. It happened at least 3 times in the game by my count, so hopefully in the film room the coaching staff sees that and makes the proper adjustments...there are some holes in our in-zone coverage that need to be addressed if we're going to be successful defensively. They aren't hard to smooth over, but players have to understand their assignments and then execute.

It helps when MAF doesn't look like he's fantasizing about the burrito he had for lunch yesterday.

MAF was dialed in tonight. You could see it from the start, and Greg Millen (Sportsnet) even mentioned it several times early in the game too.

mikey287 wrote:Weird, the best goalies in the league are the ones on defensive teams...

Tonight, we played a pretty good defensive game* and our goalie played well...

Strange how that works sometimes

* - we do have an issue with how we handle situations where 4+ men are active and 3 men are below the hash marks...there's no apparent plan on who everyone should take in those situations. It happened at least 3 times in the game by my count, so hopefully in the film room the coaching staff sees that and makes the proper adjustments...there are some holes in our in-zone coverage that need to be addressed if we're going to be successful defensively. They aren't hard to smooth over, but players have to understand their assignments and then execute.

It helps when MAF doesn't look like he's fantasizing about the burrito he had for lunch yesterday.

MAF was dialed in tonight. You could see it from the start, and Greg Millen (Sportsnet) even mentioned it several times early in the game too.

penny lane wrote:i'm proud of Kunitz~ all over game and at 33 , his scoring success. Pascal too. And both undrafted.

What's impressed me as much as their productivity is the consistent effort and intensity of Sid and both linemates. They're leading by example and it looks like it's rubbing off on their new youngsters Bennett and Sutter.

Bennett impresses me with his ability to think the game. Very smart for a young player and seemingly doesn't get caught out of position. Liked his comments between periods about being too soft on the puck then going out backing it up with his play

Sutter just looks better and better every game, too. I can't imagine anyone is still disappointed with that trade

penny lane wrote:i'm proud of Kunitz~ all over game and at 33 , his scoring success. Pascal too. And both undrafted.

What's impressed me as much as their productivity is the consistent effort and intensity of Sid and both linemates. They're leading by example and it looks like it's rubbing off on their new youngsters Bennett and Sutter.

Bennett impresses me with his ability to think the game. Very smart for a young player and seemingly doesn't get caught out of position. Liked his comments between periods about being too soft on the puck then going out backing it up with his play

Sutter just looks better and better every game, too. I can't imagine anyone is still disappointed with that trade

And Poulliot could be playing here in a few years as well. I can't see why any GM wants to trade with Shero. Basically, if Shero wants the deal, you are being screwed.

tfrizz wrote:Crosby has now been credited with an assist on Dupuis' game winning goal, giving him 2 on the night.

He deserved it. Good for him. He was in beast mode. When Fleury, Letang and Crosby are all on their game this team is a tough out. If Malkin comes back and reigns himself in with the bad passes - this team will be scary.

tfrizz wrote:Holy slickness Sidney! And way to react quick by Dupuis!!

Hawkeynut wrote:Sweet mother of God.. how does Crosby slow things down like that?

He turned that from the forehand to the backhand pass faster than some people could one-time a puck, and still put it right where it needed to be. Most mortals couldn't even imagine such a plan, while Crosby was already implementing it.

Stuff like that isn't just ridiculous. It's magical. It's like watching Messi play soccer. Crosby is on a level in his sport right now that is above and beyond anybody else holding a hockey stick out there.

Now that I've stated the obvious... for a while it used to seem like the Pens would blow leads, or else when going into the 3rd you wrote the game off if they were trailing. It feels good to go into a 3rd with hope again (knock on a wooden Crosby peanut butter and jelly sandwich).